The Most Beautiful Sunset
by blissfulnightrain
Summary: "...and the three of us sat, right here on this tree, and watched the sun go down. And, I'd seen the colors of the sky during the sunset and all before, but never had I seen it like that…I thought it was the prettiest thing I had ever seen." Kairi challenges Sora to remember every detail leading up to watching their first sunset together. Post-KH2. SoKai.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: All characters belong to Square-Enix/Disney.**

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It's been so long since I've been able to just sit back and _relax_.

A week's passed since I got back to the islands, and it's been crazy. Everybody—and I mean just about _everybody_—has been after me, wondering where I had disappeared to for over a year. I can't leave the house without a hoard of people interrogating me!

Just leaving the house is an issue of its own. Understandably, mom's been a little…clingy. I don't really blame her; I mean I _did_ disappear for so long. But, between her and the mob that seems to always be on my case, getting a little time all to myself can seem harder than fighting a thousand heartless! Not that I would trade now for then.

So, here I am, sitting on that bent over paopu tree on what we dubbed the "play island" when we were younger. I guess we've kind of outgrown the "play" part in the title—it's more of a "hangout" island, now. Although, I'm here alone. Mostly 'cause I just needed to sneak away and get my alone time. I mean, it's great seeing everyone again, and I don't exactly hate all the attention, but it's starting to get a little overwhelming.

It's crazy how nothing's changed about the island, though. The atmosphere is exactly how I remember it. I close my eyes for a moment, and take in the familiar scent of the salty ocean water. I can feel the breeze against my skin and hair, and I can hear the waves come crash on the beach shore. When I open my eyes, I see the sunset.

Now, I've seen plenty of sunsets while on my journeys, and of course, all of them were beautiful to look at. No other world has _anything_ on a Destiny Islands' sunset, though. The sky is always so clear here, and you can see the way the red, orange, yellow, pink and purple just fade into each other so perfectly. Not to mention the way the sun reflects off the sea; it lights up the whole world.

"Boy, did I miss this," I say out loud to myself. I fold my arms behind my head and lay back on the tree trunk. I think I'm going to take a little nap. Although my bed at home might be more comfortable to lay down on, nothing beats the complete peace I feel while I'm out here.

"Sora, Sora, you haven't changed at all," says a voice, after what seems like two seconds. She sounds a little disappointed. I know exactly who it is before I open my eyes to look at her.

"And what's _that_ supposed to mean, Kairi?" I ask. I pretend to be really mad about her intruding like that, but I know she sees right through it.

"More than a year of fighting Heartless, Nobodies, and all kinds of enemies, _and_ having to go out and try to find Riku and me _twice_, and you're still the same lazy bum," she sighs. She's got her arms crossed, while she's shaking her head in disapproval. The big smile on her face gives away the fact that she's messing around, too.

"Well, you _did_ tell me not to change," I reply in a defiant tone, while I stick my chin up and cross my own arms.

That makes her giggle, and I end up dropping my act and laughing with her, too. Her laugh is and always has been one of the most beautiful sounds to my ears. Gosh, sometimes I wonder how I even made it through that year without her.

When our snicker-fit ends, Kairi walks around the tree and up to the edge of the islet, her back towards me.

"The sunset sure looks beautiful today," she observes.

"Yeah, it's exactly how I remember it," I agree. And, I have to admit, having Kairi here now…it just got, like, a hundred times more beautiful.

"I remember the first time I saw a sunset out here," she says, turning around to face me. "It was a couple of days after I first came here, and you and Riku came to my house and brought me out here."

I smile back at her. "Yeah, I remember the day as if it was only yesterday—I can't believe it's been ten years!"

"Oh, do you, now?" she questions me, as she climbs up to sit on the trunk right next to me.

"What, don't believe me?" She's definitely trying to challenge me or _something_.

"Well, Naminé _did_ jumble up your memories. Who knows what you can and can't remember?" she smirks.

"Hey, she put my memory back together just fine!" I know she's just messing around, but she _is_ starting to get on my nerves.

"Alright, fine. Tell me about it. From the very beginning." She still has that smirk on her face.

I pause for a moment to gather all the memories. I'm confident Naminé put 'em all back together perfectly—everything I can recall seems about right.

"Alright, here's the story. From the _very_ beginning."

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**A/N:** Hey guys, hope you enjoyed it~ I intend to make this a short, three-chapter fic, so follow if you like what you've read so far. I'll be uploading the rest soon!

And as always, I love feedback and constructive criticism so I can improved (especially since this is only my second fic)

Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to Square-Enix/Disney.**

A/N:Hey guys, so I know I previously said the story would be three chapters, but I'm actually extending it to four, 'cause I thought this one was getting too long. The next one should be up soon! Until then, I hope you enjoy this one, and please Follow/Fav/ ESPECIALLY Review since I could really use the feedback!

Also, the POV has changed slightly; it still is first-person Sora, but this chapter and the next one are just him telling the story. I was too lazy to do the whole constant quotation marks thing aha...let me know if it sounds okay!

Without further ado, enjoy~

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Okay, I'll start from the _very_ beginning. You can go ask Riku all this stuff if you _really_ need verification. Of course, that'll only show how much you trust me.

Hey, hey, I'm just kidding! Enough with the death-glare, please.

Alright, here goes.

So, it was a crazy summer day. I was five, and Riku was six. The two of us were fooling around on the play island, as per usual. We were dueling with our toy swords. I was _pounding_ him. Ten minutes, and he was begging for mercy. Of course, being the amazing, generous friend I am, I let him off the hook. Besides, seeing him cry as hard as he was kinda made me feel bad. That's why I started _letting_ him win at every—_OWWW_, Kairi! Alright, alright, so I made that part up. Let's just move forward, and let me survive telling this story with my shoulder un-bruised and still functioning, all right? I like my shoulder.

Where was I? Oh yeah, so Riku and I spent the day playing around, right here, on this islet. We hung around here 'til sunset, and then my dad came and picked us up. The two of us really wanted to see the sun set that day, since our parents never really let us stay out here long enough to see it. We got dad to cave, and the three of us sat, right here on this tree, and watched the sun go down. And, I'd seen the colors of the sky during the sunset and all before, but never had I seen it like _that._ The way the sun hit the horizon, and the light just flooded everywhere…I thought it was the prettiest thing I had ever seen.

Finally, it was starting to turn to dusk, and Dad got me and Riku into the boat to row us back to the main island. Night had fallen by the team we got to the shore. I remember thinking that the stars were glowing especially bright that night.

Dad took a while to tie the boat up. I think there was something wrong with the rope—but that's not really important. He figured it out, and we started on our way home, until Riku got all excited.

"Look! Up at the sky!" he started yelling. Dad and I looked up and saw, all of a sudden, a bunch of shooting stars.

"Well, whaddaya know? It's a meteor shower," Dad said. Now, I'd never seen one before. I never knew there could be so many shooting stars in the sky, all at once!

A bunch of people started coming out of their houses, one by one, to take a look up at the sky. Everyone was "ooh"-ing and "aah"-ing at how beautiful it looked. We just sat down on the shore and took the whole thing in. It was amazing.

Then, after a while, Riku pointed out one shooting star in particular, that was going in a different direction than all the rest. I wasn't paying much attention at first, until he started screaming:

"It's coming at the island! It's coming right at us!"

Everyone got really worried, and before we knew it, it hit the play island. There was this huge sort of blinding light that emanated from there for a couple of seconds, and then it just went away. The meteor shower pretty much stopped a few seconds after that.

I didn't realize it, but the mayor—your dad—was right behind us on the shore. He told a few of the higher-ups to go with him to take a look at what had just happened. As they got into their boats to start their search, my dad dragged me and Riku home. We were really upset, 'cause we really wanted to know, too. Of course, Dad thought we were way too young and all that stuff, so there was no way he would let us go there. Plus, it was way past our dinner times.

I remember when Mom put me to bed that night. I couldn't sleep; I really wanted to know what exactly had happened. Riku told me his theory while we were walking home—that something had fallen from another world. He had always been talking about there being other worlds out there, but I always thought that he was just being weird whenever he brought that stuff up. This time, though, I thought he really was on to something. I remember trying to sneak out of the house, but I couldn't get any of the windows open. When I tried the front door, Dad naturally caught me. He brought me back to bed and asked me what exactly I was bothered by. I told him. He laughed at me, but then said, sincerely, that he promised to tell me what he knew in the morning. That put me at ease, and I fell asleep.

I woke up pretty late the next morning, since I delayed going to sleep the night before…sorry, I'm getting redundant. Just trying to make sure I'm piecing everything together okay.

Anyway, first thing I remember doing that day was running downstairs and finding Dad. I jumped on him and asked, really excited, if he knew anything about what happened the night before.

"They found a girl," he said. "She's at the mayor's house now."

"No way!" I screamed. "I gotta tell Riku!" Dad caught me before I ran out the door in my pajamas. Yes, I know, I was the cutest kid ever—hey, don't give me that look! Okay, I was definitely cuter than Riku. See, now, you agree. Anyway, Dad made me brush my teeth, eat, and change, before I could finally run across the street and tell Riku the news.

I barged right into his house—the door was already open for some reason—and I yelled out for Riku. His mom came out laughing from the kitchen, and invited me in.

"Riku, Riku! Dad told me that they found a _girl_ when they went to the play island!" I shrieked. I thought he'd be more excited, but he looked more troubled than anything.

"I know, Sora," he said. "But, Mom won't let me go and see her." He had a pout on his face while he pointed at his mom.

His mom turned towards us and said, real calmly, that it was probably just best for us to stay away for a couple of days. Let the girl—you—get settled in. Riku was frustrated. He'd always believed in there being other worlds, and now, he finally had some sort of proof, but he couldn't investigate. That's what he told me when we ended up going out to play again after we left his house, anyway. He couldn't stop complaining about how upset he was, not being able to meet you. I reassured him that we'd see you eventually, and he agreed, but I could tell it was still bothering him.

We hung out for a little while, but Riku ended up having to leave the play island early that day, so I hung out with Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus. We weren't really too close then, so I kinda got bored and decided I'd do a little exploring by myself. That's what Riku and I would do when weren't competing at anything, anyway. It was kind of our way of going on adventures. Of course, we'd use our imaginations to spice things up and everyting—but you remember all that.

Anyway, the waterfall near the seaside shack became the object of interest that day. Riku and I would usually avoid that area, since our parents hated it when we got wet in regular clothes. I guess I was feeling a little rebellious that day, or something. I avoided going into that little splash pool, but I walked all around the area. At first, I didn't really see anything out of the ordinary. But then, this really powerful gust of wind came and moved around a bunch of the ivy, and I saw the small opening to what looked like a cave. I walked towards it and tried going inside, but I got really scared when I heard something growling in there. I was pretty sure it was a monster, and there was no way I was going in there by myself. I would just have to wait until I could come again with Riku, I guessed.

It was a couple of days before I went back to the island again. Our parents were super busy, so they weren't able to row us out. I tried not to tell Riku about it, 'cause I wanted it to be a surprise, but I ended up caving. See, I tell the truth!

Hey, I'm a pretty good secret-keeper now! No one besides us three _actually_ knows where we disappeared to last year. I think that's pretty good credibility for me, so stop making that face at me!

Well, going back to the story, I ended up telling Riku the day before we went back to the play island. He was really excited, until we actually got there. He ended up taking more of a realistic approach, wondering if we could actually beat the monster. I assured him the two of us would be able to take it on together. Heh, it's amazing how naïve we were. Luckily, when we finally got in, we found out that the noise I heard wasn't a monster at all—it was just the wind howling. We also found a weird door in there. It didn't have any windows, or doorknobs, and there was no way for us to get it open. I asked Riku if we should get a grown-up to take a look at it, but he refused. He wanted to keep the place a secret, and I agreed. I thought it would be cool, to have our own place, all to ourselves, that none of the other kids knew about.

There wasn't really much left to explore in the cave, so we tried to figure out what we wanted to do next. Riku suggested we finally go see "the new girl at the mayor's house"—or, you. By the time Riku's dad came, though, it was too late to go visit you. So we settled on waiting for the next day.

So, right after lunch that day, Riku and I ran over to your place. Now, this part, I remember _perfectly._

We knocked on the door really loud and waited for someone to come to open it. It probably took only a minute, looking back on it, but it felt like forever. Finally, the mayor's wife—your mom—opened up.

"I was expecting you guys," she said, while she laughed light-heartedly. Apparently, Riku's mom had told her that we'd been itching to meet you. I guess that day was the first time your mom actually felt comfortable letting you out and getting to know people on the island. She invited us into the house and let us wait in the entryway while she went to go get you.

Riku and I were ogling at how _fancy_ the place was. I wanted to touch everything, but he stopped me. If I broke something, there was no way we'd be able to see you. Still, even now, my mind is blown every time I step into your house. It's so _nice._ No, that's _not_ why you're one of my best friends. But it's a perk.

Finally, your mom brought you down the stairs.

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A/N: Ooooh what will happen next? Follow for Chapter 3 (Coming soon!) and please review.

pls


	3. Chapter 3

"This is Kairi," she said, and she gestured towards you. You seemed really shy, so I took it up on myself to introduce us.

"I'm Sora, and this is Riku!" I yelled. "We were wondering if you wanted to come out and play with us?!" I remember Riku nodded, agreeing to what I had suggested.

"Kairi, do you want to go out with them?" your mom asked. It took you a moment, but then you smiled and nodded your head. That made me really happy. "Alright," she turned towards us, "so, what are you guys going to be doing?

"My dad can take us out to the play island today! The three of us can play there, and then, he'll bring us back!" Your mom agreed to the plan, and let us take you out. So, the three of us headed out towards my house to get my dad to row us out to the play island.

I remember our conversation on the way. Riku started it, asking where you had come from.

"So, where did you come from? We don't normally get people from outside the island."

You put your head down and looked really frustrated, as if you were struggling to recall something.

"Sorry, I can't remember," you replied to him. You sounded really sad. It worried me.

"That's okay, we can still be friends!" I reassured you, while I was scared that you might not think we wanted to be friends with you 'cause we might have thought that was weird, or something. "And, who knows," I continued, "maybe after a little while, we can help you remember everything. Right, Riku?" He nodded to agree. I knew he was a little disappointed, but he was always well-mannered towards strangers…when he felt like it, anyway.

You looked up and smiled when I said that. "Thank you." It made me happy to know that you were becoming comfortable with us. You started asking us all these questions, about the island, our families, our friends…I remember you asking us if "it was always this hot." I couldn't tell if you were disappointed or not when we told you it was. I guess you've grown accustomed to it now, huh?

It was a fifteen minute walk back to my place. Dad was really excited to meet you. "You are absolutely adorable," I remember him saying. Dad also had always wanted a daughter, but that's a story for another time. What, what're you laughing for? Hey, I might not be as manly or whatever as _Riku_, but who saved the worlds _twice_? N-not that a girl couldn't do that either! Ugh, now you're all mad…this isn't even the point. Let's save this for another time, I'm gonna get back to the story now. Okay? Okay.

Where was I? Oh yeah, so Dad took us out to the play island. He actually hung around the whole time, probably to make sure that you adjusted okay to the new surroundings. We asked you what you wanted to do, and you shrugged your shoulders.

"What do you guys _like_ to do?" you asked.

"We like to do lots of things!" I replied. "Sometimes we like to explore, or fight with our toy swords, or hang out in the secr—"

"Sora!" Riku cut me off. I forgot that we were supposed to keep it a secret, and I panicked. You looked really curious, but Riku changed the subject really quickly to get your mind off of it. "Sometimes, when other kids are here, we like to act out plays and stuff, too…you know, use our imaginations and come up with pretend adventures and stuff."

That caught your attention. You had this really excited smile on your face. "Can we do that?" you asked, really enthusiastic.

Riku and I agreed; I remember thinking we hadn't done anything like that in a while, so it would be fun. Especially with someone new! So, we took some time figuring out what kind of…prompt, I guess? You know, what we would use to improvise from so that we could make up what we were doing as we went along. I remember we decided that you were a princess who needed two body guards—or, me and Riku—to protect you against monsters, while we escorted you to the castle. It was a lot of fun! It was also kind of our way of giving you a tour of the play island, too. We started on the seashore and went into the cove. There, Riku and I "fought" monsters on the bridge to the other side of the beach. We found some shells on the shore, and I remember I put one on your head and called it your "crown". You kept it on for the rest of the day, too, haha! It was kind of ridiculous, looking back on it. Still makes me smile, though.

After fooling around there some more, Riku and I "escorted" you back to the other side of the shore. We showed you the seaside shack—which we ended up calling your "castle" for the day. You thanked us for all our hard work, and, after we went up the stairs and got back out, you picked a branch up off the ground and used it to dub us knights of your kingdom's army. Just before we could accept our new knighthood, though, we heard Dad calling us, saying it was time to go.

I was having so much fun; there was no way I wanted to leave at that point.

"But, Dad, we're just getting started!" I remember yelling at him.

"Sora, we've been here the whole day. Look at the sky, the sun's about to set," he replied, pretty calmly from what I can remember.

Before I could start a tantrum, I remember glancing at you and Riku out of the corner of my eye. Riku was completely fixated on me and Dad's conversation, looking like he was trying to think of a way to back me up. You, on the other hand, weren't paying any attention at all. You were completely turned around, towards the shore. It didn't take me too long to figure out that you were looking at the sky.

"It's so…wow…" you marveled, with a tone of wonder in your voice. And you were right. It was.

Suddenly, an idea popped into my head.

"Dad, can we please stay to watch the sunset? Kairi's never seen one here before! Please? Please? Pretty _please_?" I begged.

I didn't really expect him to cave, but I saw him looking at you. He must have seen that expression of…wonder, on your face. There was no way he couldn't let you stay.

"Alright…just this once," he said, defeated.

I was _elated_. Riku was just as ecstatic as I was and we started dancing around while Dad walked up to the shack to join us on the islet. You just stood in the same place, admiring the view. Finally, when I heard Dad's footsteps up the stairs, I challenged you guys to a race across the bridge. It was funny, you looked like someone had just suddenly snapped you out from some kind of daze. You lined up with me and Riku, and right when Dad came up, he started counting.

"1, 2, 3, GO!" he yelled. The three of us bolted across the bridge right then and there, and I ran as fast as I could. I had this huge grin on my face, 'cause I realized that Riku wasn't in front of me for the first time! I didn't look back to make sure he was okay or anything, I just went on right ahead. I mean, there was no way that I was going to give up an opportunity to beat Riku at something.

I finally crossed the finish line and turned around to take a look at how far behind you guys were. You were just a couple steps behind, and Riku was right behind you. I gave him a look when he crossed. I was concerned, after all. I mean, there was no way Riku would ever come in _third_, right?

Now, don't get mad, but…well, he told me he wanted to let you win since it was your first time hanging out with us and all. You're not mad? Well, true, it _wasn't_ me…can't wait to watch you thrash on Riku next time we see him though. Phew, I felt really bad then when I didn't go along with him and let you win, too, but I guess it paid off in the long run!

Aha, alright, alright, going back to the story now. We're almost at the end here. Now, where was I? Oh, right, so we all finished the race. Dad caught up with us, and helped us climb the branches of this here tree to sit on. After getting settled down, I finally got a chance to take a really good view of that day's sunset. I thought that the one I had seen a few days before was amazing, but this one was just _stunning_. The sky was perfectly clear, so the light bounced off of everything, and the water shined even brighter.

I was so mesmerized, I almost didn't hear you say what you said next. It was something along the lines of "I know I don't remember much but…I know I've never seen anything this pretty before!" You had this big smile plastered on your face. I couldn't help but grin, too.

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**A/N:** One more chapter on the way soon, hopefully! Please let me know what you guys think, I can't tell if anyone likes this or not aha. I've been having fun writing in Sora's voice, since I can use it to write with really laid-back casual, language, but I want to know whether or not you guys think I'm doing a good job capturing him? Please review~ I don't bite :3


	4. Chapter 4

"And there you have it. That's the story of our first sunset," I finish. I turn to look at Kairi, who still has this huge smirk on her face.

"I guess that was _passable_," she says. I can feel my expression turn into a scowl. After like, what, _twenty_ minutes of talking about every excruciating detail I could think of from something that happened _ten_ years ago?! I'm so not having this.

"Passable? Kairi, that was perfection!" She starts giggling, and she punches me lightly on my shoulder.

"Calm down, Sora, I'm only joking!" she says between laughs. I wait for her to finish, and before I can come up with something real clever to say to her, she continues, "You did a perfectly fine job." Her expression changes to a genuine smile, and that just melts my heart. I can feel all my disappointment just fade away.

There's something about that warm, inviting expression, that somehow builds up some kind of…courage, I guess, within me. I lose myself for a minute in those big indigo eyes, and the way her soft, pink lips turn up when she smiles.

"You know Kairi, there is one detail I left out," I find myself saying aloud. I don't know where I'm getting the strength to say what I plan on saying next but…_Gosh, what am I doing?_ What if I ruin our friendship? What if she thinks I'm weird and never wants to talk to me again? And Riku's never gonna let me hear the end of it if this goes wrong and—

"Oh, and what's that?" she interrupts my freaking out sesh. Ugh, you dug yourself into this grave, Sora. No turning back now. Nice knowin' ya. If anything Donald and Goofy will miss me, right? And, I mean, Riku would die of laughter, so he'd join me in whatever afterlife there is anyway. Hey, Auron's in the afterlife, maybe the three of us could hang out. That actually doesn't sound so bad.

"_Sora,_" Kairi breaks me off of my train of thought again. Alright, here goes. Gotta be as smooth as possible.

"Well…" I start. I hope my voice doesn't sound shaky. I decide to turn to look at the sunset to calm my nerves. That'll make it easier than seeing her make some disgusted face at me, right? "…even though I'd only properly watched one sunset before that one with you, I decided on that day that that sunset in particular, was always gonna stand out to me as the most beautiful one."

"And why's that?" she asks. She doesn't sound worried or mad. In fact, she almost sounds like she knows what I'm gonna say next, but she still has that curious tone in her voice.

"Because…from that day on, I knew that nothing would make me happier than seeing you smile, watching your eyes light up the way they did…and, I knew that…no sunset would ever be complete, for me, without having you there to watch it with."

I glance nervously towards her, not sure what to expect. But, what I see isn't what I anticipated at all. Her smile's even bigger than it was before…she's not looking at me anymore, her eyes are pointed more towards the ground. And…is she…_blushing?_

Before I can study her expression any longer, she suddenly looks up at me. "You know, Sora," she begins, "I've always felt the same way."

"Really?"I try to pull off asking in a really smooth, confident, "i-totally-knew-you-were-gonna-say-that" kinda way, but honestly, I'm shocked. This is totally not what I was expecting at all. But I think I'm liking where this is headed.

She looks up and our eyes meet. "Well," she continues, "that year, when you and Riku were away, and I couldn't remember you…I couldn't bring myself to even come here. Even though I couldn't recall a single thing about you, I knew that there was something missing from every sunset I tried to watch."

I can't believe what I'm hearing. This is perfect, absolutely perfect. This is everything I've always wanted. I know I was expecting the worst, but this moment right here is all I could have ever hoped for from this conversation. I can't help but break out into the biggest grin I've ever grinned.

And before I know it, I feel myself lose control all over again. My hand cups her cheek, and I close my eyes and move my face closer and closer towards hers until…

You know what? I change my mind. _This_ is _definitely _the most beautiful sunset I've ever experienced.

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A/N: Aaaaand that's a wrap! Hope you guys enjoyed the story and thank you to everyone who fav'd and followed, you really helped me keep going with this :) I'd really like some reviews/constructive criticism to improve further if you guys could please take like a minute and do that for me! It would mean the world!

So I've gotten a Kairi and a Sora fic done, so Riku's naturally next...let's see what I have up my sleeves for him next? Haha I hope I'm doing justice to these characters by writing in their voices ^^;

Anyway, thank you guys so much again for reading :3


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